Dragon's Lair comparisons
This article compares the differences between the Dragon's Lair in Daventry as it appears or referenced in various sources and games, and the upcoming KQ9. As such will ignore anything having to do with the Dragon's Lairs which appear in KQ7 and KQ8. Background The prologue to King's Quest 1 (King's Quest by Roberta Williams) states about the lair: :King Edward and his wife gazed into the Mirror's depths and saw a young princely figure with a gold crown upon his head. Imagining the youth to be the son they yearned for, the royal couple gladly bestowed the Mirror upon the sorcerer. He took it to his dwelling, where he set one of his beasts to guard over it. The novel for King's Quest 1 in the King's Quest Companion paraphrases the prologue by stating: :The only leads to the missing treasures the young knight had to go on were slim. One: the dwarf who had taken the magic Shield of Achille had been seen disappearing into a hole in the ground. Two: the shape-changing witch who had stolen the Chest of Gold escaped on her broomstick into the clouds that clunk to the peaks above Daventry, solid-seeming masses like now cornices, impossible outcroppings poised out from the mountains with no support. Three : the nameless sorcerer who absconded with Merlin's Mirror had said it would be kept in a safe place, guarded by a fearsome beast. There were no easy answers in this list, but that was all anyone knew about the mystery.KQC2E, pg 14 Quest for the Crown: From the Chronicles of Daventry, Part I Note: For full details see Quest for the Crown: From the Chronicles of Daventry, Part I#excerpts The novelization of KQ1 in The King's Quest companion is written by the unnamed Royal Scribe (as told to him by Graham). In it the three treasures are collected in the order of the Magic Mirror (from the Dragon's lair), then the Shield, and then the Magic Chest. The entire story is based on events of the original King's Quest AGI, this includes the more active and constantly moving dragon in a larger sized cave. In the novelization it is described as constantly charging at Graham breathing fire and singing his hair (with Graham thinking of killing it with his dagger through its heart), but first distracting the dragon with the bucket. Some artistic license is taken with the artwork in the third edition of the companion that shows a larger dragon in a smaller cave (somewhat like that of the remake), with the pool from the well bottom being very close to the Dragon (rather than at least one room away) that he is able to see the dragon in the image before he even gets out of the pool (in the story he doesn't see it, until he crawls through a tunnel into the dry cave). But the image, the dragon is drawn as a wingless wyrm with several horns on its head. The King's Quest VII: Authorized Players Guide a companion to the Companion made the brief reference to the Dragon's Lair sequence in The Stories So Far (following the order the treasures were collected in the Companion): :Suitably motivated, Graham tromped off, defeated a fire-breathing dragon to retrieve the Magic Mirror... GrahamDragon.jpg|...The problem took the shape of a 12-foot-long, iridescent, green-scaled, fire-breathing dragon. (3rd Edition) Grahammagicmirror.jpg|...Graham looked deep into the glass that told the future. His own face looked back, and on his head was a crown! (1st Edition). ancientwellandcave.jpg|Ancient Well and Cave to the Dragon's Lair laircaveandwell.jpg|Entrance to cave and ancient well. ancientwellKQC2E.jpg|Ancient Well The An Encyclopedia of Daventry in the first and second edition states: :Merlin's Mirror: One of the three great treasures of Daventry, along with the Shield of Achille and the Chest of Gold. The mirror has the power to foretell the future. Edward and the rulers before him used it mostly for weather and crop forecasting, but Edward and Maylie did use it at least once to look upon the image of Daventry's next king. The mirror was stolen from Edward and Maylie by a sorcerer, and the thief hid it in a cave guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. Graham was able to reach the dragon by climbing down a well and dousing the dragon's flame...KQC2E, pg 487 KQ1-3 AGI discovering the Dragon's lair AncientWellscreenKQ1.png|THe ancient well in the woods. The handle for raising and lower it on the right side of the well. sittingbucketKQ1AGI.png|Graham sits in bucket. wellsidesKQ1AGI.png|Graham climbs the rope inside the well.The muddy carved walls surround him. wellbottomKQ1agi.png|Graham swims through the murky well water to the exit leading up into the Dragon's Lair. dragonslairKQ1agi.png|The dragon already awake, charges around his large lair breathing fire, while protecting the magic mirror. Graham has the option of killing it or putting its flames out with a bucket of water. killdragonKQ1agi.png|Graham kills dragon with a dagger through the heart. The dragon dead he can get the mirror, but the exit boulder remains in place. embarraseddragonKQ1AGI.png|Having been splashed in the face the dragon runs off embarrased, it moves the boulder and leaves the cave to sulk. insidecaveKQ1agi.png|Inside of cave exit to Dragon's lair boulder blocking the entrance to the dragon. caveexistnorockKQ1agi.png|No rock blocking exit cave after Dragon leaves. caveexitDLKQ1AGI.png|Cave exit from Dragon's Lair. KQ2 and KQ3 doesn't really concern the Dragon's Lair (unless you count a new Dragon's Lair in the Land of the Clouds) but they are included in this discussion as KQ2 portrays the return of the Dragon (from KQ1AGI) at Graham's wedding, and KQ3 portrays the Ancient Well as seen in the original KQ1, now filled in with rocks (seemingly having shifted location to near the Door into Mountain and the Dangerous River bend, each are other landmarks in Daventry that were several screens away in the original game). Near the well is a wall, and to the south of it is the Great Tear a chasm created by one of the earthquakes that hit Daventry around the time the Three-headed Dragon showed up in Daventry. weddingKQ2.png|The Dragon and the Sorcerer/Enchanter attend Graham's wedding in Kolyma. wellscreenKQ3.png|The Ancient Well is filled in with rocks (perhaps to keep the dragon from using the hidden Dragon's Lair inside), the crack of the Great Tear lies in front of it. KQ3Daventry.PNG|Map of Daventry at the time of KQ3 (landmarks strangely changed around and close together compared to locations in the original game). An interesting side detail is that The Official Book of King's Quest suggests that these rocks and boulders may have been from remains of the Town of Daventry, and that nearby Door into the Mountain (yes this other landmark is a completely different location than it did in KQ1 for whatever odd reason) is also littered with the remains of the village. KQ1 SCI remake defeating the Dragon in its lair There are quite a few differences in the remake most concerning puzzle changes, and some narrative changes, and changes to the order the treasures are collected: The mirror or the chest can be picked up first, and the shield is the last treasure. However, the overall order of events within the Dragon's Lair remains the same. Graham can cut the bucket from the rope as he did in the original at the top of the well, or he can do it at the bottom (in the original the narrator said it was too dangerous to cut while Graham was sitting in the bucket). The The Official Book of King's Quest VI went with the idea that Graham lowered himself in the bucket, and then cut the bucket while he was in the well (as implied by the related artwork, see below). In the original Graham fills the bucket while still in the bottom of the moat, in the remake he fills it in a little pool in a small cave room that exits from the well bottom. The dragon is less active in the remake, instead starting asleep, and waking up, and raising its head as Graham gets closer. It's ready to kill him if he gets too close, but makes very little movements, and only blasts Graham if he walks too close to the dragon. If graham chooses to kill the dragon he goes for its throat rather than its heart this version. There are some additional descriptions for the dead body including discussion of Dragon Tongue. As well as some changes to how the dragon escapes (and its embarrasement), and the descriptions of the steam which it now uses to hide its escape. GrahamAndTheWell.JPG|For a quick trip to the bottom of the well, jump into the bucket (From The Official Book of King's Quest VI). ancientwellKQ1SCI.png|The ancient well in the forest. The handle to lower and raise the bucket is on the right side. wellsides.png|Graham climbs down rope into the well. The constructed rock sides surround him covered in algae and lichen. sittingbucketKQ1SCI.png|Graham sits in bucket. floatingbucket.png|Graham cuts bucket from rope, it falls into water and floats at the surface. wellbottomKQ1sci.png|Graham swims through well to enter the secret cave leading to the Dragon's Lair. wellbottomKQ1sci2.png|Graham has exited the pool of water near the entrance to the Dragon's Lair. dunkingbucket.png|Graham dunks the bucket into the cavern pool to get some water. sleepingdragonKQ1SCI.png|Graham enters the Dragon's Lair, the large dragon lies asleep in a large cave. It rests near the Magic Mirror. File:DragonKQ1SCi.jpg|The dragon awakens ready to spit fire on Graham. Graham has three options kill it with his dagger, or throw water at it to put out its flames, or walk away (the dragon puts its head down, but keeps an eye open watching Graham). File:DeaddragonKQ1SCI.png|Graham kills the dragon by piercing soft, unprotected skin under the dragon's throat. Causing it to convulse, and crash lifeless to the hard cavern floor.. File:embarrasedragonKQ1SCI.png|Graham douses the dragon's flames and it runs off after causing the room to mist over. It moves boulder leaving exit open. embarraseddragonKQ1sci2.png|The dragon embarrased with nothing to protect itself with except steam, it slides the boulder out of the way, and slinks off in shame. File:dragoncaveexitKQ1.png|The exit to the Dragon's Lair with boulder blocking the entrance to the lair proper exitnoboulderKQ1SCI.png|Graham exits through the open passage, the boulder moved into the other room. DLcaveexitKQ1.png|The exit to the Dragon's Lair into the forest. KQ1 SMS finding the Dragon's Lair King's Quest for the SMS is based largely on the events from the Original KQ1 AGI, although most of the script has been modified (or rather simplified) and there is even less descriptions due to the fact that there are limited actions that can be taken with the games particular user interface ('verb action' menus). The Sega hint walkthrough has the order of collecting treasures as Shield, Chest, and then Mirror.http://segaretro.org/images/0/07/KingsQuestSMSUSHints.pdf Graham must get the bucket at the top of the well, and then lower the rope. There is no way to jump into the bucket and ride it down to the bottom. The well itself is shortened to just one screen, rather than two. With both the rope hanging and the well bottom on the same screen. The rope itself seems to be too high to climb back out of the well ('climb' option appears to not function, and there is no option for choosing 'rope', so no way to 'climb rope' as in the original game). The cave is specifically described as the dragon's lair (for trivia sake the term Dragon's Lair is usually something that only appears on the grid maps in the hintbooks and strategy guides), and the exit cave is described as the giant cavern. The dragon more or less acts in a similar way to its AGI counterpart, although it tends to stay in one place in the cave, and makes one step forward and one step back over and over (always facing Graham), rather than charging back and forth. Its animation shows it breathing fire from time to time. To kill the dragon you have to walk up and literally touch the dragon (the fire doesn't seem to hurt Graham), and then throw the dagger, and piercing the dragon in the heart. Otherwise Graham misses whenever he tries to throw the dagger. If Graham attempts to walk past the dragon he will be killed, no matter where he is on the screen. But simply walking up to the dragon appears to be safe. But as mentioned its not easy to exit from the well (is this a dead end?). After Graham scares the dragon away, it just shows the dragon and the boulder vanishing with no animation. WellKQ1SMS.png|The well leading to the Dragon's Lair. wellbottomKQ1SMS.jpg|Graham swims at bottom of well. dragonlairKQ1SMS.jpg|Graham enters into the Dragon's Lair. killdragonKQ1SMS.png|Graham pierces the dragon in the heart. embarrasdragonKQ1.png|Graham extinguies the dragon's flames with water from the bucket, and scaring him away. In his flight he moves aside the boulder which blocked the cave exit. CaveKQ1SMS.jpg|Graham in the giant cavern, with passage blocked with huge rock. CavekQ1SMS2.png|Graham in giant cavern, boulder removed from entrance into dragon's lair. CaveetranceKQ1SMS.png|The cave exit leading into the woods. KQ9 raid on the Dragon's Lair Despite the teams desire to avoid retelling familiar parts of Graham's adventures, the opening sequence is an exception. It reinterprets Graham's acquisition of the magic mirror from the dragon in the well from the first King's Quest. Note: Current information comes from the trailer, and Game Informer February 2015 article. The game begins with Graham walking down a forest path and toward a well in the woods. He walks up to a well. Old Graham narrates; "I had not been back there in years, but it was the last place to look." DragonslairKq98.jpg|Graham is wondering through the woods. Wildlife can be seen ahead of his path. DragonslairKQ91.jpg|Graham discovers the ancient well (and prepares himself). ancientwellKQ9-2.jpg|Graham reaches the ancient well. Note that the rope to pulley system for the well is off to the side of the well, rather than on the well itself (this is a detail change from the well's function in previous games). There is a bucket, so perhaps it still has a purpose in the game. Graham lowers the rope, and climbs into the well. Graham sneaks through a series of tunnels in a vast underground cavern, the snores of the dragon thundering from within. Mattresses litter the environment along the way, and even hang from the ceilings by rope. In the present Gwendolyn interrupts, "Wait a minute! Beds hanging from stalactites?" Graham assures her that all will be explained (later in the first episode, a younger Graham will be shown enter the well, and will show the origin of several things - stray arrows, forgotten skeletons - that seemed too conspicuous the first time through). Graham encounters a few switches that need to be turned and platforms that need to be lowered. When Graham walks by a bed, and attempts to jump in. Via narration, old Graham explains that this is an urgent situation, and no time to hide under the covers. However, if he continues to jump in the bed, old Graham admits that he did take a brief nap on an abandoned bed in the depths of the cave. DragonslairKQ92.jpg|Graham hangs from a rope with light streaming in from above (entrance to from ancient well?). Note there is no bucket at the bottom of the rope (perhaps Graham had put it in his inventory?). Below him is a pile of treasure in what might be a pool of water (a strange mattress lies to one side). ancientwellKQ9-3.jpg|Graham turns a wheel in the well caverns. If this s the "Bottom of Well" from the previous games, perhaps there is no swimming in this interpretation of events? dragonlairKQ9-15.jpg|Which set off a bed trap inside the room. dragonlairKQ96.jpg|Graham reaches a long tunnel 'caverns that can kill' filled with the remains of skeletons (previous adventurers?). A strange mechanism can be seen moving at the end of the room). Dragonlairbones.jpg|Graham steps on one of these piles and cracking noise appears to disturb the dragon's sleep. Dragonlairbonelook.jpg|Graham looks down at the bones he just stepped on, as the cavern begins to shake. At one point Graham chooses between two switches to open a door - with a skeleton lying nearby. The answer is obvious. But if Graham decides to describe his grisly demise, Old Graham explains the situation, "That's what would have happened if I did that," and silences Gwendolyn's protests with excuses, "I just wanted to see if you were paying attention." dragonlairKQ93.jpg|Graham enters the strange little door. At the end of his journey through the well caverns, he comes face-to-face with the massive dragon guarding the magic mirror. Simply dumping a bucket of water on the east won't do the trick this time. Graham distracts the dragon, takes the mirror, and makes for the exit. dragonlairKQ95.jpg|Graham walks precariously over the Dragon in its lair using a wobbly rope bridge (a treacherous trap?). The dragon sleeps on a pile of beds (with what may be the magic mirror next to him). dragonlairKQ9-9.jpg|Having distracted the dragon somehow, he finds the mirror on the mattresses, and examines it. dragonlairKQ94.jpg|Graham discovers an underground spring, far below him. mattresfall.jpg|Graham apparently steps on a mattress and the floor below it breaks through, and he falls to the spring below, and he lands in a river. dragonlairKQ9-12.jpg|Graham lands in the water below. dragonlairlow2.jpg|Graham is heading towards a low tunnel. dragonlairriverlow.jpg|Graham ducks nearly hitting a low hanging tunnel. dragonlairKQ9-10.jpg|Graham ducks to avoid hitting his head as he passes under an arch. dragonlair-13.jpg|Graham jumps over a log which lies over the river, and gotten stuck in the underground river. Eventually Graham is cornered and forced to make a decision. Using a bow he finds in the well, Graham can shoot the beast in the eye, blinding it and buying time to escape. He can shoot the feeding bell, drawing the dragon away. Lastly, he can shoot (the wheel locking) the shackles binding the dragon, setting it free. Whichever choice is made will have consequences for Graham in the future. A blind dragon might cause problems for the people of Daventry down the line, while one that Graham freed out of compassion could offer him assistance. dragonlairKQ97.jpg|Graham in a cavern room with the dragon, and the dragon lunges for Graham (there is no gold pile so this may appear in another room). But gets yanked back on the chain tied to its neck. There is a mattres on the grouns, and it looks like Graham maybe at the top of a waterfall (perhaps this is the end of the river he was surfing on in the cavern) dragonlairKQ9-18.jpg|Graham prepares to fire bow at dragon. dragonlairKQ9-17.jpg|Graham blinds Dragon in left eye. Dinner bell is on the right, and a pully sytem for releasing the dragon's shackles on the left. dragonlairKQ9-11.jpg|Graham sneaks around ledge, while Dragon climbs up towards the light. The wheel looks like the same wheel that controls the pully and gears that is used to release the dragon from its shackles. References Category:KQ9